Actually, most of the newer techniques depend on server-provided code executed in the client, and those results posted back to the server. Therefore, disabling

Actually, most of the newer techniques depend on server-provided code executed in the client, and those results posted back to the server. Therefore, disabling Javascript and plugins prevents most of them, as it prevents automatic postback, but also the access to APIs that allows that information be collected in the first place. There are ones that'll keep working without Javascript or plugins, like anything coming across in HTTP headers (user-agent, accept, Etag) or on the lower layers (IP address, ciphersuites). Chromium maintains a good Wiki of tracking techniques and possible mitigations [1], Firefox also [2]. Predictably, ones in the lower layers are more difficult and/or impossible to mitigate from a browser; the ones relating to the precise use of HTTP can be mitigated at the cost of breaking automatic HTTP content-negotiation (including mimetypes and language), and caching/state-control semantics. [1] http://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/client-identification-mechanisms http://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/client-identi... [2] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Fingerprinting https://wiki.mozilla.org/Fingerprinting